The effectiveness of therapeutic touch: a meta-analytic review

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the adequacy of published scientific evidence supporting therapeutic touch as a nursing intervention. Meta-analytic techniques were used to integrate the research-based literature published in the past decade. The results seem to indicate that therapeutic touch has a positive, medium effect on physiological and psychological variables. It is impossible to make any substantive claims at this time because there is limited published research and because many of the studies had significant methodological issues that could seriously bias the reported results. Resolving these methodological issues is imperative for therapeutic touch research to move forward.